EE, exertis Micro-P and Lebara Mobile were the biggest winners at last nights 2014 Mobile News Awards gala held in London’s Park Lane Hilton.
The telecoms biggest black tie event, now its 20th sold-out year, was hosted by top TV comedian Greg Davies, who serenaded the 800 plus audience before presenting to the winners.
EE collected trophies for Best Network and Best Advertising campaign ‘ featuring Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon and TV chef Jamie Oliver. Lebara also saw double by clinching the Best MVNO gong and the award for Community and Social Enterprise while exteris Micro-P came out on top for Best Hardware Distributor and Best Accessories Distributor.
The awards were decided by a panel of 15 independent judges chosen for their industry knowledge and expertise. For the first time Best Network was decided by three criteria of written entry, Mystery Caller Scores, and ratings by independent call measurement organisation RootMetrics.
Vodafone clinched its first Best Large Retailer award based on Mystery Shopper scores. Sony Mobile was judged Best Manufacturer and Carphone Warehouse Business won the Best Airtime Distributor category.
Nokia’s Lumia 1020 was voted Innovative Handset while the Dragons Den-backed Reviveaphone product to fix water-damaged phones impressed the judges for Innovative Product. Newly launched global handset trading operation CloudX made a great start, scooping Innovative Service.
Other successes on the night went to B2B dealer Uplands Mobile for Customer Service, Evolve Telecom who were named best B2B Dealer, Activ8 best Accessories Manufacturer, ANOVO best Service and Repair, Mazuma Mobile best Recycling Provider and BuyMobiles.net for best Online Retailer.
The final award of the evening was decided by a live text vote to determine the Industry Personality of The Year, with the gold medal going to Carphone Warehouse head of B2B Bob Sweetlove.
